Royal Flush
by JinnySkeans
Summary: What comes before, during, and after "happily ever after." Because some princesses wear lab coats instead of tiaras, and some princes are just fine with that. AU
1. Chapter 1

Sakura's breath caught in her throat as she took in the sight of the crowd below. Never before, in all of her life, had she seen so many people gathered in one place.

_I didn't realize Konoha even HAD this many people living here,_ she thought, trembling slightly as the muffled roar of the crowd below resonated throughout the room.

Of course, it wasn't just Konoha who had turned up for the ceremony. On such a historical day, delegates had arrived from sister nations Suna and Ame; the royal family from Iwa made an appearance, along with seemingly every major news station in the world.

Not for the first time, Sakura questioned her own sanity.

_What the hell am I doing here?_ she thought in panic, feeling tears of pure fear brimming in her eyes. Hastily, so as not to spoil the meticulous work of the best makeup artist in the country, she blinked them back and glanced at her worried reflection in the ornate golden mirror in her dressing room.

The Konan-designed wedding gown was one of a kind, impossibly beautiful, and easily iconic, once displayed to the public. Strapless, somewhat daring for a royal wedding with its sweetheart neckline and low back. It cinched in nicely at her waist and flared out over her slim hips in delicate lace. Her signature pink hair – a no-doubt shocking addition to the royal family – was pulled into long, soft romantic curls and her makeup was very light, concentrated mostly around her eyes.

They'd done the best they could with a poor, inner city girl, that was for certain.

"He's at the church, Sakura," said Ino, her maid of honor, appearing in the reflection beside her. Looking more like a princess than any other human being ever had in apricot and chiffon, Ino smiled beautifully and fixed Sakura's train. "It's a one-mile ride there in the car, you do your little wave-y thing, then bing bang boom you're married."

"I think I'm gonna be sick," Sakura whispered.

"Not in that dress, you're not," Ino said sharply. "I plan on selling that on eBay the second you get changed. Do you have any _clue_ how much money I'll get, for hocking the royal wedding dress?"

"Ino."

"Come on, idiot, what's there to be nervous about? Although, I guess I have to stop calling you idiot. In public, anyway. Since you're like, a half hour from becoming a _princess._"

Sakura knew her best friend was only teasing her, but that was exactly why she was so terrified.

"That's just it, Ino," she moaned, slumping onto the little stool in front of the mirror. "I know I'm gonna fuck this up. I just know it. See I can't even stop saying 'fuck.' What kind of _princess_ says 'fuck?'"

"You're being ridiculous."

"No, I'm not. I know this is what every little girl dreams of, okay, I know that being a princess is…like…I _get it._ But I know I'm gonna ruin this for him. What do I know about being a princess? What do I know about leading people?"

Ino apparently seemed to understand that what Sakura was experiencing was definitely more than pre-wedding jitters, and switched modes instantly, from slave-driving maid of honor to understanding best friend. She was so perfectly composed that Sakura bitterly wondered why Sasuke wasn't marrying Ino instead; she'd make a hell of a princess without even having to _try._

"Look," said Ino with a kind smile, wrapping an arm around Sakura's shoulders. "It's gonna be _fine._ Okay? You've been friends with Sasuke for years. The media already knows who you are, everything about you, and everybody loves you. You've been getting practice with all this royal crap ever since you and Sasuke started dating. It won't be anything you can't handle."

"There's a _million_ ways to offend someone," Sakura whispered, fighting an urge to chip her peach nail polish just out of habit. "You can't forget anybody's name. It's this endless parade of visits with foreign dignitaries, and paparazzi in your face waiting to catch you fucking up – see, I said fuck again, goddamn it – and this country means _so much_ to Sasuke, it's all he cares about. And I'm gonna ruin it for him, I just know it."

Ino's blue eyes softened, and she murmured, "So you're unsure about being a princess. Okay. But are you unsure about _Sasuke?_"

And Sakura took a moment to think about the surly, quiet boy she'd known since childhood, about how a young prince and an orphan with a scholarship became unlikely friends at boarding school, about how an illicit first kiss was stolen on a secluded beach and all the incredible, amazing, _infuriating_ romance that followed…

She felt her lips quirk into a smile.

"Sasuke?" she echoed, thinking of the handsome prince who was waiting for her at the church. "No. About a lot of things, yeah. But Sasuke? Never him."

"And why are you marrying him?"

"Because I love him. And he loves me. And…"

"And that's all that matters. The rest will work itself out. But you two are in love; that's the most important thing. You're not marrying him because he's a _prince,_ so quit trying to be the perfect _princess._"

Sakura studied her reflection for a moment before giggling. "I'm being stupid, aren't I."

"'Course you are, but that's why you have me to kick your ass into gear."

A quick knock at the door interrupted their conversation. "Come in," Sakura called, and Suigetsu, one of Sasuke's personal bodyguards, poked his head inside.

"The car's ready for you, Your Highness," he said with a toothy grin.

"Not yet I'm nobody's highness," Sakura grumbled. "For right now I'm still Sakura _fucking_ Haruno. Now let's do this."

"Figures," Ino groaned, helping her friend stand up in her four-inch heels. "Only girl on the face of the Earth who _doesn't_ want to be a princess, and _she's_ the one he picked."

* * *

The flashbulbs erupting in his face as he disembarked from the Phantom were nothing new to him. Perhaps he hadn't seen photographers in such great quantity, of course, but after 22 years of having his privacy stripped away and his entire life put on display for the entire world to see, he'd gotten used to the publicity.

But picturing his feisty, insecure fiancee in the same situation, he was forced to suppress a grimace as he headed up the steps to the church.

Was it fair of him, to want to marry her even knowing the horrors that sometimes accompanied a man of his station?

_She'll have to deal with all this on a daily basis,_ he thought, keeping his expression masterfully composed as his picture was taken by a thousand photographers. They were held at bay by large fences and dozens of bodyguards, but it was still uncomfortable, the constant state of being monitored.

And Sakura, a down-to-earth girl who enjoyed her youth and privacy, was about an hour away from selling her soul.

"Hey, asshole," greeted his best man, Naruto, dressed in a loud orange tuxedo and grinning ear to ear. He was waiting for Sasuke at the top of the steps, and seemed entirely oblivious to the obnoxious picture he made in a royal setting. Perhaps that was why they'd become such good friends at boarding school – Sasuke had always been rebellious. It would make sense that he'd befriend the one kid who was a living representation of everything his parents, the king and queen, found distasteful.

Right along with marrying a commoner two weeks out of college.

"You look less ugly than usual," Naruto remarked, remembering to bow to Sasuke (purely on ceremony), as Sasuke drew up beside him. "Should be a relief for Sakura. She's way too pretty for you. What do you wanna bet she skips out on this whole thing?"

"Wouldn't blame her if she did," Sasuke murmured bitterly. Normally it would be second nature to say something equally rude to Naruto, but his insecurity was showing. This place was a circus. News vans, and reporters, and photographers, and every single citizen had shown up outside the cathedral to see the royal wedding; he wouldn't blame Sakura one bit if she left him at the altar in his midnight blue tuxedo.

Naruto threw his head back and laughed loudly, completely comfortable being the center of attention even if it still rankled Sasuke. "Oh come on, dude, you know she's crazy about you. God knows why, though, when she could have had me, but there's no recounting for taste."

"'Accounting,' you _cockroach,_" Sasuke corrected nastily, but Naruto only laughed again.

At that moment, a trumpet fanfare sounded in the courtyard, and the massive crowd was parted to admit a sleek black car with bulletproof windows, two small flags with the Uchiha crest emblazoned on them signifying who was riding inside. Sasuke instinctively straightened up, as the driver opened the doors and the king and queen emerged from the car to uproarious applause.

King Fugaku, in full military dress, held out his arm for Queen Mikoto, and they made their stately way up the stairs to their son. Sasuke bowed to them when they reached him, and his mother, grinning widely and completely against protocol, threw her arms around Sasuke in a bone-crushing hug that made the crowd cheer even harder.

"Can't breathe, Mom," Sasuke hissed.

"I've seen her already, Sasuke!" she whispered conspiratorially, referring to his fiancee. "She looks _beautiful._"

"She's…actually coming?"

Positively glowing, Mikoto drew back at Fugaku's subtle insistence. She patted her husband's arm and Fugaku, looking as uncomfortable as he always did in touchy-feely situations, murmured, "Well I can't say I was in love with the idea at first, but…Itachi would've been proud of you, Sasuke. This is a good day for you, and for Konoha."

Sasuke's eyes widened; it took years of practice to conceal his shock in front of rabid photographers, but he managed to keep his expression neutral as King Fugaku, the initial opponent of a prince's engagement to a commoner, remarked, "She'll make a fine queen, someday."

"Good luck, darling," Mikoto whispered tearfully. "Go on in, she'll be here soon!"

Sasuke nodded dumbly, unable to say anything else, and mercifully had Naruto there to shove him inside the church. "Idiot, she's the one who's supposed to walk down the aisle, not you!"

Sasuke had taken two steps inside, stunned silent, when he heard another trumpet fanfare outside, lighter and prettier than the loud, brassy explosion of sound that heralded the king and queen's arrival. Against protocol, he stopped dead and turned around, craning his neck to see outside again.

A white limousine had pulled up to the front of the church. Sasuke, grinning in a bizarre mixture of terror and relief, turned back around and made his way towards the altar.

It was bad luck, after all, to see the bride before the wedding.

* * *

**note..** so this ugly little prologue is my way of getting back into the game here, so to speak. please remember my zero tolerance policy for bullshit and save the "don't start another story update your old stories" for someone else, I DO WHAT I WANT.

anyway welcome. like anyone else i was inspired by/jealous of william and kate and here's my sasusaku take on a royal wedding theme. if you liked it let me know, if you didn't, please just don't tell me. have a good weekend, babies, be safe!

xoxo daisy :)


	2. Chapter 2

**5 Years Ago**

So _annoying._

It wasn't like privacy was something he could ever really expect, not when the entire world knew his name and face. His attendance at the prestigious Iwa Enrichment Academy was public record, and everybody and their brother knew where to find him 10 months out of the year.

But what he wouldn't give for just a few minutes' peace and quiet.

Today, it was a gaggle of nameless underclassmen girls vying for his attention. When he'd _politely_ requested that they leave him alone to his studies, they'd erupted into giggles and coos, whipping out camera phones to take pictures of him and making a number of rather lewd suggestions. Sasuke was used to all of this, but it was _finals week._ He didn't have time for this kind of crap.

After the underclassmen girls refused to leave him alone, he'd gotten it into his head to escape from the library and find somewhere more private to study. His dormitory was out, since Naruto had invited his girlfriend over for the weekend, rendering the entire apartment uninhabitable. The library, where he usually retreated to peruse his history books, was flooded with adoring fangirls. It was too cold to try and work outside, the skies overhead threatening snow.

His bad mood degenerated even further.

He didn't _ask_ to be born into the royal family, and not for the first time, he cursed his fine lineage. His heritage, prestigious upbringing, future king status and patrician features caused him more trouble than he felt the entire thing was worth. 17, and disillusioned.

_I'd try and leave campus,_ he thought moodily, cutting across the quad headed God knows where. _But security would go ballistic._

The last time Sasuke had attempted to skive off his security detail and head into the city, there was panic on an international level. And after a solid reaming by the King and Queen for his 'reckless behavior unbecoming of a prince,' – _for going to see the new Batman movie - _Sasuke more or less resigned himself to a life of constant shadowing at a boarding school crawling with greedy social climbers.

But all he really wanted right now was some peace and quiet. These names and dates weren't going to memorize themselves, and if there was one thing worse than a reckless prince, it was a lazy one who didn't study and did poorly on his finals.

It was always cold at IEA, its location high in the mountains and far away from civilization. Sasuke missed Konoha with its balmy climate; there, he could sit down on the grass just about anywhere and study in warmth and comfort. Here, he'd freeze to death.

Maybe an empty classroom?

He looked around. The nearest building was the chemistry building, a place he'd had no reason to step into, since his classes were political this semester. But everybody knew that, which meant that they'd be less likely to search for him here. Glancing about from left to right for any unwanted social climbers and finding himself in the clear, he stepped inside.

It was warm and massive, with classrooms and labs peppering the two-story interior. Hopefully nobody would be here or find him until he got some serious studying done.

The first door he tried was locked, so was the second. Annoyed, he looked around and saw one of the labs had a light on under the door. Hopeful, he tried that one and to his surprise, it opened right away.

_Finally something's going right today,_ he thought moodily, stepping inside and looking around. He stopped dead in his tracks, though, when he saw there he was not alone in the room; a girl dressed in a labcoat was working with test tubes and beakers on the other side of the room. She looked up when he entered.

"Uh, sorry," Sasuke mumbled, then he quickly remembered it was undignified to slur and mutter his words like that. He straightened up and added, "I didn't realize anyone else was here."

The girl met his gaze curiously, her eyebrows scrunched as if she was trying to figure out who he was. Upon closer inspection, Sasuke realized that the girl was very pretty; she had short pink hair tied messily in a bun at the base of her neck, choppy bangs falling into goggle-covered green eyes, and full, pretty pink lips.

"I'm Sasuke," he introduced himself somewhat awkwardly, when she said nothing.

"I know who you are," she replied with a slight giggle, returning to her labwork as though he hadn't interrupted her.

That was one of the more uncomfortable truths to being famous; it was impolite not to introduce oneself, but also kind of unnecessary, given that everyone knew exactly who he was. As the wealthiest, most powerful student on campus, his name pretty much spoke for itself.

"…I'll leave you alone," he said with a sigh, resolving to find another place to work in solitude, but the girl stopped him.

"Oh, you don't have to go," she said, with a pretty smile, looking up from her graduated cylinder. "It's gotta be a nightmare finding some privacy out there. This place is always pretty deserted on the weekends and I won't rat you out to your admirers, if you ever need to use it."

Sasuke blinked, somewhat nonplussed by what was going on here. He'd never had this kind of reaction from a stranger before, let alone a female; she wasn't stumbling over herself, blushing, stammering, fawning over him in any way. It wasn't arrogance on his part to expect such a reaction, either, just a lifetime's worth of experience.

But this girl, busy with her labwork and friendly in a detached kind of way, was speaking to him as any classmate might address another. Casually and politely, as if she happened to run into royalty on a daily basis.

In a bizarre way, he kind of liked that.

"Oh, I'm Sakura, by the way," she added, extending a rubber-gloved hand towards him. "Sorry, wasn't trying to be rude or anything, just trying to catch up on some of this labwork here."

"You're a student?" he asked, shaking the hand she'd offered and instantly wondering if that was impolite of him to ask. He mentally wracked his brains for some memory of her, and came up short.

"Yep," said Sakura cheerfully. "Don't worry, I don't expect you to know who I am. I'm a scholarship student."

Sasuke nodded in understanding. It was a cruel fact of life that the rich and powerful only associated with the rich and powerful; there were several scholarship students attending IEA, but without uppercrust families with whom his own could rub elbows with…

"Nice to meet you," he said politely.

She smiled again, then blew her fringe out of her goggle-covered eyes and returned to her experiments as though he wasn't even there.

Sasuke would have preferred to be alone – one never really appreciated solitude until they were utterly and summarily deprived of it – but he had to admit, as he cracked open his history book on the other side of the room, this was definitely better than braving the library. The girl, Sakura, kept to herself and was focused on her own work, and she seemed completely apathetic to the fact that the prince and heir apparent to the throne of a foreign country was studying quietly at a lab table across from her.

_Weird girl,_ he thought, turning to his books.

…

Time had escaped Sasuke's notice, and it wasn't until Sakura exclaimed, "Shit, it's late!" that he realized darkness had fallen outside.

_I should get back,_ he thought, picturing his bodyguards' reaction if he stayed away from his security detail much longer. It wasn't worth the headache, nor the phone call to his parents that he was being unruly and rebellious again.

He'd made a decent dent in his homework and reviewing for his history exam had gone better than he could have hoped. It wasn't ideal, studying about the Great Second War in a room that smelled like formaldehyde and rubbing alcohol with a strange girl in goggles, but he definitely fared better here than in the library. Quietly, he began packing up his books again. His stomach rumbled as he did so, reminding him he hadn't eaten since breakfast.

Sakura removed her goggles and then the hairtie that held her bun in place, shaking out her hair. Sasuke raised an eyebrow as she caught his gaze – without those heinous goggles, he was able to see her eyes properly, and while he wasn't a man of loquacious speech, he had to admit they were absolutely _breath-taking._ Shiny and stormy and the brightest shade of green he'd ever seen before.

"You okay?" she asked curiously, head tilted to the side as she appraised him, and he realized, the back of his neck heating up, that he was openly staring at her. Impossibly annoyed with himself for some reason, he quickly returned his attention to stuffing his books back into his schoolbag.

"Tired," he offered vaguely; it wasn't necessarily a lie. He had to be, if he was checking out some weird girl in the science lab. Such things simply weren't _done,_ as an Uchiha.

"I bet," she replied, removing her labcoat and hanging it on the wall beside her. "Finals Week is a nightmare, right? No way I'm getting any sleep tonight."

"Where's your dorm?" he asked, chivalrous upbringing taking over. It was late and dark, and Sakura, while strange, was a girl, and a small one at that. "I'll walk you back."

She blinked. "That's…very nice of you," she said, bemused by the (demand) offer. "But really, you don't have to. I'm fine."

"I insist," he said, slightly irritated with her rejection. He was a _prince._ He wasn't about to tarnish his golden reputation by letting a defenseless girl walk around in the middle of the night by herself. "It's not a problem."

"I live in the Prefectural Dorms," she explained as she tugged on a peacoat, jamming her arms into the sleeves and efficiently fastening the buttons. "All the way across campus. You know, where us poor folk have to go."

Sasuke, who was about as far from poor as one could possibly be, had scored an impressive suite in the Austerity Building, the most coveted dormitories on IAE's impressive campus. It was the largest, most luxurious building for the wealthiest, most powerful students, and it was about a ten-second walk from every class at the school. The Prefectural Dorms, however, were reserved for scholarship students, and since no money was to be made off of their enrollment, they were given simpler, cheaper living quarters further away from the different school buildings.

"I'll take you," Sasuke said flatly, shouldering his backpack. It would mean a _very_ irritating walk all the way from the chem building they were at now, to the Prefectural Dorms and then back again, but he could do with some exercise anyway.

"Go back to your dorm, I'll be fine," she insisted.

Unexpectedly, and maybe a bit unreasonably, Sasuke's temper flared.

"Are you always this difficult?" he asked, before he could stop himself.

If Sakura was put off by his rudeness, she didn't show it. Instead, she dug some mittens out of her coat pocket and put them on, replying simply, "Yeah, I guess. But it's way out of the way and it's snowing. You'll die of hypothermia on the way back and I'll be blamed for your death. Besides, I can take care of myself."

"Where are you from?" Sasuke demanded suddenly.

Frowning, she answered, "Konoha. Why?"

He smirked. "Good. If you're from Konoha, then you have to do what I tell you. I'm walking you back. End of discussion."

Sakura looked properly stunned. Sasuke almost never pulled rank, but something about the weird girl with the choppy pink hair brought out his competitive nature. And since she was technically a Konoha citizen, and he was technically a Konoha prince…

"Did you _really_ just pull rank on me?" she asked, letting out a laugh of surprise and amusement.

"Just get your stuff together," he muttered, frustrated that the back of his neck kept heating up for no reason. Most likely he was coming down with a cold or something.

Great. Just what he needed during Finals.

Sakura looked like she wanted to protest some more, but after a few seconds' deliberation, she gave up.

"All right, you win," she said, tugging a woolen cap onto her head. "But if you become some frozen prince popsicle out there, I better not get guillotined for it."

"We don't guillotine people anymore," Sasuke replied, amused as they headed out of the chem lab together.

"I figured they might make an exception. You know, for the little orphan girl who inadvertently killed the future king."

"They'd do worse," Sasuke said with a smirk. "Probably they'd torture you."

"I doubt anything they did could be worse than all these calc problems I have to know by tomorrow," Sakura sighed as they left the building.

It was freezing cold, made worse by the late hour. Campus was deserted except for a few security guards running obligatory patrols. The lamplights that lit the way across the sprawling snow-covered quad flickered as snow fell in a silent dance.

"Pretty damn cold out, isn't it?" Sakura asked with a teasing smile. "It's not too late to back out. I'm a big girl, you know."

'Big' was a stretch. Sakura was at least a foot shorter than he was and maybe half as heavy.

"Also it's totally presumptuous of you, by the way. To assume that just because I'm a girl I can't manage to walk back home alone. Really outdated and sexist. When they make you king you should totally take feminism into account."

"I'll keep that in mind," Sasuke said dryly. "Will you shut up now?"

"Depends. Is that an _order?_ Your _Highness?_"

Sasuke wasn't sure why – maybe it was because the title always made him feel a little uncomfortable – but he really didn't like hearing Sakura call him that. Technically, that's what everyone was supposed to call him, but she'd reacted so blasé to his presence that day, it was as if he was a normal high school kid instead of who he actually was. He'd forgotten himself that there was a serious class distinction between them, and that if he hadn't stumbled into the chem lab that day, he might never have even met the scholarship student at all.

It was – oddly refreshing, being spoken to like he was normal.

"Sasuke," he mumbled into his scarf.

"What?"

"Just…just Sasuke." Annoying girl. Making him repeat himself.

"All right, just Sasuke," she giggled.

The walk was longer than Sasuke had been prepared for. If he had to do this every day, back and forth to get to his classes, he would be madder than hell. But Sakura didn't seem bothered by the distance at all; most likely, after a year or two, she was used to it.

"You're a sophomore?" he guessed, filling the silent winter's night with conversation.

Weird. Typically he avoided small talk, but Sakura had quite a mouth on her. It was invigorating to be around someone who didn't check her responses before she gave them.

"Nope," she replied. "I'm a senior."

That was slightly awkward; he hadn't ever seen her around before, but she was in the same class as he was.

"Almost done with this place," she said cheerfully, seemingly unaffected by his ignorance to her existence. "I'll be going to Ame for my undergrad, how about you?"

"Undecided," he offered.

"I want to go to medical school, I really want to be a doctor. How about you? Oh that's a dumb question. I'm guessing you'll be a poli sci major."

"Aa."

"Do you at least like it? That's so lame, you probably never even had a choice."

"Not really," he smirked. "My career was mapped out for me the second I was born."

"I think I'd hate that," Sakura said cryptically.

He frowned. Most people were envious of royalty. What was there to hate?

Apparently realizing that she'd said something that confused him, Sakura clarified, "I mean to say I think people should have a choice. And yeah, I'm sure 99 people out of 100 would choose to be king, of course, but what if you didn't want to be one? You don't even have a say in the matter. People should be able to choose what they want to do with their lives."

Sasuke hadn't really thought about it that way before. Or rather he had, only to immediately stifle the rebellious thought; it was useless to resent his royal upbringing because he had absolutely no choice. Whether he wanted to be a lawyer, a police officer, a teacher, a professional athlete, none of that made any difference because he was born a prince, and someday, he was going to inherit his father's throne. No two ways around it.

"Well here's my stop," she said cheerfully a few moments later, unaware of where Sasuke's thoughts had taken him. They reached a newer building on the very rim of campus; its exterior wasn't very impressive which was why it had no doubt been excluded from the itinerary on the tour he'd taken prior to his acceptance. No doubt the interior was just as unimpressive when compared to the affluent residence he'd been assigned.

"Probably not as Hogwarts-ish as where you get to stay," Sakura conceded, following his disapproving gaze at her dormitory, "but some of us are just lucky to be here."

"You're not…like the other girls who go here," Sasuke said hesitantly, wondering if maybe that would offend her.

Sakura paused, then turned to look at him. Again, her head was cocked to one side and she appeared to be thinking; her pretty eyes caught the light from one of the nearby streetlamps, casting them in molten gold.

"Thank you," she said finally, with a smile that made his stomach twist. "Good luck on your Finals, just Sasuke."

The walk back to his dorms felt longer. The heat on the back of his neck, though, kept him warm the whole way.

…

**note..** that's how they meet, y'all.

fyi, i said this story was loosely inspired by will and kate, not that i'd be telling that story again with sasuke and sakura inserted in it. i think that's like the height of lame, when people jack someone else's characters and shove them in a story that's already been told lolz. so sasuke bring a prince like will and sakura being a commoner like kate is about as similar as it's gonna be.

anyway if you like it let me know. have a good weekend, everyone. love you.

xoxo daisy :)


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